October 29, 2017

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time A Exodus 22: 20-26; 1 Thessalonians 1: 5-10; Matthew 22: 34-40 How am I loving? How am I loving each of the classes of people in my life: family, relatives, neighbors, friends, schoolmates, workmates, people in the businesses I frequent, strangers on the street, people I will never meet except in the news media or entertainment fields? Do I realize that to God they are all my brothers and sisters? Is it hard for me to live with certain ones? How would I describe my love? Is it self-giving? Is it all inclusive? Does it depend on the person I am with? Is my love given equally to all? Do I ever reflect on the reasons why I hold back my love? These can be very interesting reflections and insights. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s famous poem, How do I love Thee? is an interesting starting point. Actually this is sonnet number 43 taken from The Sonnets from the Portuguese which was published in 1850. She chose this title to fool her audience into believing that she had translated this from the Portuguese. Actually it was dedicated to a fellow poet, Robert Browning, her husband. He had rescued her from her home in London. Her father was very possessive and controlling. As a result Elizabeth lived a reclusive lifestyle in an upstairs room. She obviously was very frail and sick and needed opium and laudanum, an alcoholic solution from morphine, to relive her pain. Her preoccupation was her poetry which led her to Robert Browning. She broke from her father and was happily married for 16 years. Basically her poem is a list set in the present that reflects her very deep love. I wonder how many us have ever tried to make a corresponding list? Today’s readings concentrate on our love of God and our love for our neighbor. They asked if we love ourselves in the way that God loves us. These are very simple statements but living them out daily is difficult, many times seemingly impossible. So we look to the readings for some help. The Book of Exodus is a description of the Israelites escaping from Egypt and their forty years wandering in the desert wilderness. Actually this is a side theme; the major theme was the forming of a people into the people of God. Today, Moses is giving some direction and moral principles concerning the people who come into their daily lives who are in need and ‘forgotten’. His list includes aliens; people from other countries, cultures, religious beliefs. He affirms their dignity and said that they are to be respected and not oppressed or molested. He looks at widows and orphans. In their culture when a man dies, his widow has no source of income she has to resort to begging and the children are orphans. God is with them especially because they are unwanted and hurting. Do I realize that God is asking me to help them? He then concentrates on the poor. They as well as us live in a world of ‘have and have nots’. We do not have to question why they are in this condition but to realize that God has blessed us. Are we sharing our blessings? Love of neighbor consists in loving, caring, forgiving, helping and letting those we come into contact with know that God loves them. God sends us to help and let them know of God’s love. Also, do we pray for them? Paul had just come from Philippi when he had been mistreated and abused. He went Thessalonica where the people received his gospel and were living it with much conviction. So much so that Paul says that they “…have become model for all the believers in Macedonia and Acaia”…for “every place your faith in God has gone forth.” For us, it is a wonderful reflection at the end of the day to see where we have seen God and how we have reacted. Also to see how we responded to those in need…did they somehow see God’s love in and through us? Jesus today is confronted with another test to really embarrass Him before the crowds and to stir them up to eventually support the Pharisees’ condemnation and crucifixion efforts. Today a legal scholar poses the question about which commandment is the greatest. Now Moses delivered the Ten Commandments. Down through O.T. times these have been explained; as a result more were added. Rabbinic Judaism believed that there were 613 commandments in the Torah, 248 were positive while 365 were negative. Debates were frequent as to which was the best and highest; today Jesus is questioned. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 which states, “Here, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength.” This is not focused on an emotional feeling but on each person willing and acting. Many rabbis would have chosen the same passage, so Jesus was saying nothing unique. BUT Jesus adds a quote from Leviticus 19:18 stating, “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow country men. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” Jesus is saying very directly that there is a direct connection between loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. The combination of these two passages was not found before Jesus. Jesus is definitely stating that the whole law (the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ Law of Love) and the prophets (all the teachings and prophecies the they received from God) depend on these two commandments. Jesus exposes a richness that was already present in these teachings but only He could see it. So we are to love God no more or nor less than we love others. We cannot claim to love God if we don’t love our neighbor as ourselves. 1 John 4:20 states, If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” St. Francis deSales gives us very practical advice: “Put others in your place and yourself in theirs, then treat the other the way you would like to be treated. That’s how we love God, neighbor, and self.” So I reflect on: • In my life, who is the alien, widow, orphan or person in need that I have trouble seeing as my neighbor? Do I know why? • I look at the times that God’s love has inspired/pushed me to love. What was God like in this? What did I learn? • Do I see God in others, or do I see them as a means to my own ends? • When I am angry, prejudiced, and being hurtful, is this the person I want to be? • Do I want to be the kind of person who uses my words to hurt the people I love? Sacred Space 2017 states, “Isn’t it possible for my heart, soul, and mind to want different things sometimes? Jesus calls me to integrity and to wholeness. As I am drawn into relationship with Him, I come to love what He loves, to desire what He desires, and to think as He thinks. I can do nothing to make God love me more. God’s love shines on me as the sun shines on Earth. Real prayer includes resting gratefully in that love. I have a treasure in my heart, which is the limitless love of God for me. But I must share it with my neighbors. I ask to be a true escort of God’s love to others.”